Little known fact about my family: My daddy actually taught homiletics to university level theological students at one time in his career. He loved to talk about preachers and preaching styles, and, as a result, I learned a thing or two about the art of preaching. So having said that, I will give O's mini sermon today four out of five possible stars. His spontaneous rendition of Amazing Grace could have used a little work, but I am not going to quibble. The church was with him, and that's all that matters.
"As a nation, out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited grace upon us for he has allowed us to see where we've been blind," Obama said. "He's given us the chance, where we've been lost, to find our best selves."
He might have given "us the chance", but unfortunately a lot of us are not taking it.
Quite a few of our so called leaders still do not realize that they have been blind, and it has taken them a hell of a long time to find their "best selves."
I am thinking of people like Clarence Thomas. A man who has found himself on the wrong side of history because of his ignorant and misguided dissent in today's historic (and long overdue) decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, a case that has given same sex couples the same rights and protections under the Constitution as heterosexual couples.
"The corollary of that principle is that human dignity cannot be taken away by the government. Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved. Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the government confined them. And those denied governmental benefits certainly do not lose their dignity because the government denies them those benefits. The government cannot bestow dignity, and it cannot take it away.
Thomas went on to write that one's liberty and dignity should be shielded from the government — not provided by it.
"Today’s decision casts that truth aside. In its haste to reach a desired result, the majority misapplies a clause focused on 'due process' to afford substantive rights, disregards the most plausible understanding of the 'liberty' protected by that clause, and distorts the principles on which this Nation was founded. Its decision will have inestimable consequences for our Constitution and our society."
See, this is the problem with this man: He thinks that slaves should have been "Dignified". Sorry, it's kind of hard to maintain your "dignity" when you are being stripped and beaten and sold like cattle. But I digress.
This twisted and sick dissent thinks that majority decision by the court will have a "inestimable consequences for our Constitution. " Huh????
He is wrong. Had he and his right- wing buddies had their way, that would have had a devastating affect on our Constitution. And, as a result, our country would have taken two steps backwards instead of moving forward into the 21st Century.
So in one eventful week the country wakes up and starts to denounce a symbol of hate that has long been ignored, and we legalize the the rights of our fellow Gay citizens to legally marry each other.
Amazing Grace indeed.
Pic by Getty images from themirror.com
